*Beep~*
Wearing Bajit's face, Tao Bai swiped the key card and opened the hotel room door.
It was a deluxe twin room.
Lin Shuying looked at Tao Bai as he walked in, her face full of suspicion.
It wasn't because she sensed a difference in their aura, but rather the discrepancy in height.
If the difference were only two or three centimeters, it might not have been noticeable.
However, with a ten-centimeter difference, it was easy for Lin Shuying to tell.
"Who are you?"
She asked in Thai.
Tao Bai also took a moment to size up the "little girlfriend" Bajit had mentioned.
He found that Bajit's taste was indeed sharp; her figure, appearance, and temperament were in no way inferior to most top-tier HuaXianese female celebrities.
It was just that her height was only 162 cm, making her appear slightly petite.
"Hehe,"
Tao Bai chuckled,
"Relying on just a face swap really isn't reliable."
As he spoke, his facial muscles twitched, and his true appearance was revealed.
He looked elegant without losing a sense of delicate handsomeness.
"Ah!"
Lin Shuying screamed as she watched Tao Bai change his face right in front of her.
She quickly covered her mouth, trying hard to compose herself.
Seeing how handsome Tao Bai was, she couldn't help but be dazed for a moment.
Recovering her wits and recalling that Tao Bai had just spoken Mandarin, she switched to Mandarin as well and asked softly,
"Is Bajit dead?"
"Why? Do you want to avenge him?"
"Avenge him?"
Lin Shuying let out a dry laugh, her eyes suddenly flashing with a cold light.
"I wish he had died sooner...
He actually threatened me and forced me to be in a relationship with him..."
"What is going on?"
The two sat by the bed and chatted for a few minutes.
After Tao Bai said, "So that's how it is," he sat cross-legged on the floor and began to meditate.
A white light vanished between his eyebrows, and his vision slowly descended internally.
Before long, Tao Bai saw the Blood-Link Mill on his ascending aorta.
There were already 109 souls within the mill.
As the blood flowed, the Blood-Link Mill ground automatically;
Dark red, resentful blood gurgled out, mixing with the fresh red blood flowing through his body.
The color of his bone marrow had deepened, showing a trend of shifting from apricot yellow to orange.
Perhaps in another month or two, his body would glow again!
Spiritual energy circulated through his body like liquid.
In his lower Dantian, a ball of golden flame burned beneath an illusory furnace, heating and purifying the spiritual liquid.
The greyish-black impurities accumulating in the furnace would be periodically cleared out by Tao Bai.
However, the purification process was extremely slow;
Impurities only needed to be cleared once every three to five months.
Tao Bai told Lin Shuying not to disturb his cultivation.
She watched him sitting still and found it strange—
There was a perfectly good bed, yet he insisted on sitting on the floor.
She lay on the bed, trying to make as little noise as possible while turning over or playing on her phone.
At midnight, she went to the bathroom without making much of a sound.
Lin Shuying's grandfather was from Meicheng, Yue Province, and had emigrated to Thailand in his youth.
Lin Shuying was nineteen this year.
She had shown excellent language aptitude since childhood and had learned several foreign languages.
She was currently a freshman majoring in English at the School of Literature at Chulong University.
She was proficient in Mandarin, English, Thai, Cambodian, Vietnamese, and more.
Including her mother tongue, Hakka, and the Cantonese she had picked up with ease, she had mastered at least eight languages.
Chulong University's status in Thailand was equivalent to that of Tsinghua or Peking University in HuaXia, and the school term was set to start next Monday.
That meant Lin Shuying had to report to school in two days, on Sunday.
Tao Bai had now mastered over twenty foreign languages, not including the various local dialects within HuaXia.
Bajit's flight information happened to be for Sunday at 9:30 AM, flying from Lanling to Yangcheng, and then from Yangcheng to Thailand.
It seemed he had originally planned to take Lin Shuying for a good tour of Lanling City tomorrow and return to Thailand the morning after next.
Shortly after entering the room, Tao Bai had scanned Lin Shuying with his spiritual sense and discovered her Yin essence was intact;
She was still a virgin!
It seemed that the "Brown Face" had only recently set his sights on Lin Shuying but hadn't succeeded yet.
He had used coercion and bribery to force her to come to HuaXia with him, but he planned to cultivate feelings with her slowly.
This psychology was somewhat contradictory, but understandable.
If he simply wanted physical pleasure, a wealthy middle-aged man like him could find a woman easily—
It would be as easy as flipping his hand.
Or he could have drugged Lin Shuying or used Gu magic on her;
That would have been an easy capture.
But that wouldn't have been of Lin Shuying's own free will...
He hoped the two could come together based on an emotional foundation, rather than relying purely on underhanded means.
But he seemed to forget that he didn't possess a handsome face, and his height was only about 1.67 meters.
Spending all day thinking about these idealistic scenarios was a bit too detached from reality.
One had to realize that people with different levels of attractiveness see the world differently.
Lin Shuying was icy toward Bajit, resisting his advances with all her might.
Yet, as Tao Bai simply sat quietly on the floor meditating, he didn't even know how many glances Lin Shuying had voluntarily cast his way.
She didn't turn off the lights to sleep until eleven o'clock, even whispering,
"I'm turning off the lights. Goodnight, Mr. Tao!"
To Bajit, such a thing would have been unimaginable!
The other guy had done absolutely nothing, yet he had gained the beauty's trust!
This was more painful than killing him!
It was as agonizing as having one's bones and flesh ground in a millstone!
A lonely man and woman sharing a room passed the long night in peace.
The morning sun shone through the curtains, sprinkling light into the room.
Lin Shuying opened her sleepy eyes and saw Tao Bai still sitting cross-legged on the floor.
She finally confirmed that none of this was a dream.
But the weather is so cold right now, and the floor is so chilly.
Won't he catch a cold?
What a strange person...
They weren't returning until tomorrow, so what should they do today?
This was her first time in HuaXia.
She was filled with curiosity about the country, but didn't know where the fun places to visit, shop, or eat were.
Lin Shuying got up, put on two extra layers of clothes, put on her shoes and socks, and ran to the sink to brush her teeth and wash her face.
After washing up, she returned to find Tao Bai's meditating posture hadn't changed.
She felt something was wrong.
Summoning her courage, she walked over to Tao Bai and extended two fingers, white as scallions, under his nose.
One minute passed.
Huh?
No breathing!?
Then, she reached out to touch Tao Bai's chest near his heart.
One minute passed.
Her eyes went wide, and panic began to set in.
No heartbeat?!
Did I... Spend the night with a dead person?
At this thought, goosebumps rose all over Lin Shuying's body.
She pulled her hand back, hurriedly grabbed her phone from the nightstand, and prepared to dial 191 to call the police.
But then she suddenly remembered:
This isn't Thailand.
What is the police emergency number in HuaXia again?
The more she thought, the more flustered and confused she became.
In his meditative state, Tao Bai could even hear her heartbeat becoming increasingly rapid, reaching about 180 beats per minute.
"Why are you so panicked?"
Tao Bai spoke slowly, his eyes still closed.
"Ah!!"
Lin Shuying screamed again, her voice trembling.
"Mr. Tao, are you human or a ghost?"
"I am human, of course."
Tao Bai opened his eyes, looked at Lin Shuying, gave a definitive answer, and then slowly stood up.
"Then why did you have no breath and no heartbeat?"
"My Qi circulates within my body;
I can manipulate it however I wish.
My nose can breathe like yours, and my heart can beat like yours.
Of course, I can also make all of that stop temporarily.
You should know that Bajit was different from the rest of you.
His lips were black, purple, and thin, which likely resulted from his diet.
He probably frequently ate things ordinary people would never touch, like poisonous insects or toxic herbs...
He was the disciple of a shaman, skilled in poisoning and planting Gu, and his close-quarters combat skills were far superior to those of ordinary people.
Since I was able to kill him, do you think I would be an ordinary person?"